Police Arrest Care Home Owners On Suspicion Of Murder

Police have arrested a Somerset couple on suspicion of murdering five residents at a residential care home.

Nurse Rachel Baker and her husband Leigh were questioned after the death on New Year's Day of 97-year-old Lucy Cox at Parkfields Residential Home in Butleigh, Somerset.

As part of the investigation Police made the decision to exhume the remains of three other former residents in order to carry out toxicology tests and establish whether they had been poisoned.

The Bakers were arrested on suspicion of the murder of four women and one man, theft and unlawful possession of controlled prescribed drugs and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The exhumations represented the first time in Avon and Somerset Police history that officers have taken the dramatic decision to dig up bodies.

Three other residents, whose deaths were being treated as suspicious by officers, had already been cremated.

Care home solicitor

Victoria Blankstone from law firm Irwin Mitchell who have acted for many victims of elderly abuse said "We have voiced strong concerns into the regulation of care homes and the measures in place to protect residents who are amongst the most vulnerable in society."

"Private care homes are run for profit and we believe this has led in the past to unacceptable standards and practices in the care of elderly residents, we would urge the Government to enforce stricter regulation on these homes."

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